TEMPORARY WINTER SHELTER HEADING BACK TO 2011 SITE

Council hoped permanent facility would be ready for winter

Number of beds available in temporary shelter. The permanent site is expected to have 223 beds.

San Diego 
The location for San Diego’s temporary winter homeless shelter was decided unanimously Monday without the usual wrangling over which council district would have to host it.

The San Diego City Council voted to locate the 220-bed shelter again on a cul-de-sac in Barrio Logan at 16th Street and Newton Avenue — the site of last year’s shelter and the same location the city used from 1999 to 2007.

The council hoped last year would be the final time they would have to vote on a location for the temporary shelter. But delays in work on the city’s new permanent shelter downtown forced the city and the San Diego Housing Commission to come up with another plan to house single adults during the coldest months of the year.

It often has taken months of negotiation and hours of debate to settle on a site for the tent-like winter shelter.

Last year, the council managed to pick a site in May, with the understanding it likely would be the last time it would have to choose a location.

The temporary shelter has been located in a six-block area of the East Village and Barrio Logan for more than a decade, but council members and communities typically fight to keep it out of their neighborhoods.

Councilman David Alvarez, who represents the area, said he was not thrilled about the location, but is counting on the permanent shelter scheduled to open Dec. 31.

“I could probably sit here and give a speech to score political points with my constituents in Barrio Logan, but I think that’s not useful in this discussion,” he said, adding the debate should not be “about keeping shelters out of neighborhoods, but how we find a permanent solution.”

The Connections Housing project is a 223-bed, permanent one-stop shop for the city’s nearly 6,000 homeless people to be located at the former World Trade Center building. The Sixth Avenue site will provide social services and a medical clinic in addition to the beds.

It was scheduled to open Dec. 1, but unexpected problems in renovating the 86-year-old building, such as asbestos in the walls and lead paint, have caused the Housing Commission to determine it will not be ready by the winter shelter’s traditional opening date.

Rick Gentry, the housing commission president and CEO, said the more than $3 million in cost overruns are expected to be covered through tax credits for restoring historic buildings and low-income housing.

Gentry said he was aware of the construction delays more than six months ago. He attended a land use committee meeting at City Hall in June to ask the council to consider approving a temporary winter shelter one last time.

“We could see this one coming,” he said. “I want to point out that the delays have nothing to do with the quality or compensation of the developer. … You never know with the rehab of an existing structure what you’re going to get until you get into it.”

Gentry said the housing commission would find a way to cover the costs for the winter shelter this year.